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UBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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Reconstruction and AmendmGnts of the Constitution. 




OF INDIANA, 
In the Senate of the United States, Thursday, February 8, 1868. 



APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATION. 



The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the joint 
resolution (R. R. No. 51J proposing to amend the Constitution of the United States, the 
pending question being on the amendment of Mr. Henderson to the amapdmeut pro- 
posed by Mr. Sumner. 

Mr. LANE, of Indiana. Mr. President, I need not assure you that I approach the 
investigation of the grave subjects noiv before the Senate with constraint and embar- 
rassment. No graver subjects have- ever been submitted for your deliberation. I have 
not been able to make that thorough preparation which the importance of the subject 
demands, and which my profound respect for this high body under other circumstances 
would have prompted. I shall not be able to rise to the height of this great argument, 
yet I hope I feel and appreciate its dignity and importance. We approach the Constitu- 
tion of the United States upon a proposed amendment, and I feel the full force of the 
injunction of the Hebrew prophet, " Take the sandals from off thy feet, for the ground 
on which thou treadest is holy ground." I hope that on this occasion I shall be 
enabled to merge the partisan in the patriot. This Chamber is no fit arena for political 
gladiatorship. The great questions to which we now address ourselves invoke our 
most calm and careful consideration and deliberation. An Athenian orator was wont to 
invoke th« heathen gods, before he addressed the people of Athens, to enable him to 
say nothing but what the people of Athens desired to hear. My most humble and fer- 
vent prayer upon this occasion is to the Christian's God that I may say nothing which 
shall be unbecoming in a Senator of the United States to speak to his fellow-Senators 
and to the people of the United States. 

What, then, are the grave considerations to which our attention is invited ? I shall 
speak, in its order, of the present proposed constitutional amendment and of each of 
the pending modifications and amendments now before the body as a series of measures 
which form the congressional plan of restoration and reconstruction. But before I ap- 
proach tliat subject it will be proper to look at the present condition of the States lately 
in rebellion. What is their condition? A portion of the people of the country and a 
portion of the Senate of the United States take the ground that the States latelv in re- 
bellion are still States in the Union, existing and subsisting States, and entitled to all 
their rights and privileges under the Constitution of the United States. To Senators 
entertaining this opinion, I mean to address no argument. If they are at present exist- 
ing States, the terms "restoration," "rehabilitation," and ••admission to represen- 
tation," are idle and unmeaning words. If I understand the position of those who ad- 
vocate this doctrine, it is thus : that no action upon the part of the President and no 
action upon the part of Congress is necessary to restore these States to their natural and 
constitutional relation to the United States. How does that position agree with the 
present historic position of affairs in the country? For four years these rebel States 
have sought to overthrow and subvert t lie Government of the United Sta'es. They 
have been unable to accomplish that object. The Government of the United States has 
triumphed over thetn in the assertion of its unity and nationality and the supremacy 



2 

of its laws. We have been at war for four years. The war has temporarily ceased ; at 
least, there is no conflict of arms ; and the question now is, who have triumphed, the 
Government of the United states or the rebels in arms ? If you establish the proposi- 
tion that the people of the United States have triumphed, they, exercising the rights 
of war over a conquered populatian, have a right to dictate and fix the terms of resto- 
ration, and establish the relations which should exist hereafter between these rebel 
States, so-called, and the Government of the United States. 

It seems to me that counsel has been darkened on this subject in the statement of the 
question. A portion of the people and of the Senate believe that these States are yet in 
the Union ; another portion believe that these States arc yet out of the Union ; and 
the difficulty of dealing with that question is that both are right and both are wrong. 
Territorially these States are in the Union ; the communities in these rebel States are 
in the Union ; their citizens are citizens of these United States. Our national bounda- 
ries are fixed by treaties with Great Britain, Spain, France, and Mexico, and all the 
territory comprised within these boundaries belongs to the United States ; every citizen 
is a citizen of the United States. But the practical question is, whether these citizens 
are now, at this time, iu such a relation to the Government of the United States as to 
be entitled to participate in the legislation of the Republic. I take the ground that al- 
though, territorially, they are in the Union, although the Government by rebellion has 
lost no single power that it ever had to enforce the laws, to compel obedience, to ap- 
point postmasters, judges, and marshals, to coil«*t the revenue, and to carry on all the 
machinery of the General Government, these rebel States have abdicated and forfeited 
every right ; they are no longer to be recognized as a governing power under the Con- 
stitution of the United States. 

But we are told that the action of the Executive Department has from the beginning 
recognized them as States, and that Congress has by various acts recognized their exist- 
ence as States. I shall now proceed to show how President Lincoln and President 
Johnson hav# regarded these rebel States. But before proceeding to that question, let 
me say a word on another point. We are asked now to recognize as existing State 
governments the present organizations in the rebel States. If we can recognize any 
State organizations there at all, it must be under one of three constitutions. For in- 
stance, the constitution of the State of North Carolina prior to 1861, the beginning of 
the rebellion, required the election of a Governor, the election of State officers, and 
fixed the qualification of voters. The people of North Carolina in their sovereign 
capacity met and overthrew, annihilated and subverted, the constitution existing prior 
to 1861, and ordained another constitution for the State of North Carolina. Then we 
cannot recognize the constitution existing prior to 1861. Can we recognize the consti- 
tution formed by the rebel authorities in 1861 ? Clearly not. They repudiated the 
authority of the United States, and formed their institutions in accordance with the 
constitution of the rebel confederacy; and that act was null and void. We cannot, 
therefore, recognize the State of North Carolina as existing under the constitution prior 
to 1861, or under the rebel constitution that subverted it. Then the simple question 
comes back, can we recognize the present constitution of North Carolina as republican 
in form and as a voluntary emanation from the people of North Carolina, who alone 
have a right to form their constitution ? If the present State organization, under 
their existing constitution, cannot be recognized, then clearly no constitution exists In 
the State of North Carolina making that people a State under the Government of the 
United States. 

What steps have heretofore been taken by the United States for the purpose of re- 
storing these States to their constitutional relations to the General Government .' Mr. 
Lincoln, in lSt>3, issued his proclamation for the organization of the States of Louis- 
iana and Arkansas, stating that where loyal citizens to the number of one-tt-nth of the 
loyal voters of the States who had taken the amnesty oath prescribed by him, should 
get together and form a State government, so far as the Executive w r as concerned he 
should recognize such organizations as the States of Louisiana and Arkansas. You 
will recollect that under that proclamation of the President, State constitutions were 
formed and State organizations perfected in Louisiana and Arkansas. You will recol- 
lect the further fact that when their members applied for admission here the Congress 
of the United States refused such admission, refused to indorse that policy of the Presi- 
dent of the United States seeking a restoration of tie se States to the Union. So the 
question was left when the present Chief Magistrate of the United States became Presi- 
dent. He, by his proclamation, issued first, I believe, in the case of North Carolina, 
directed that provisional governments should be instituted in these rebel States. In 
order to determine the validity of that organization in North Carolina we must look 



Weet. Bee. fife*, g^ 



necessarily at the authority of the President for its inauguration. The President, in 
his proclamation, bases Ids authority to issue that proclamation upon two clauses of 
the Constitution of the United States. The first clause is that which declares that the 
President shall be Commander-in-Cuief of the Army aud Navy of the United States. 
He, under that provision, doubtless, in a time of war, had a right to appoint a gov- 
ernor for each of the different departments in the rebel States ; he had a right to 
appoint a military officer there to command; or, if he chose, I doubt not he had the 
authority to appoint a provisional governor ; but it was all under the military power ; 
all under the provision of the Constitution making him Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army and Navy. How long does that military power exist/ Clearly, during the 
existence of the war. With the termination of the war the power 6'eases. 

Upon the subject of the President's plan of restoration I have only this to saj r : that 
upon the death of Mr. Lincoln, and the suppression of the rebellion, he found these 
rebel States without the benefit of civil-law, in a state of anarchy and confusion. The 
confederacy having been overthrown and no constitutional authority having taken its 
place, it was temporarily his duty to preserve the peace and protect the Union men in 
those States ; and 1 have no fault to find with the manner in which he has sought to 
execute this high duty. But the very fact that he has appointed a provi ional gov- 
ernor for one or all of the rebel States is sufficient for my argument. It shows that 
the President himself regarded the civil authority in those State- as having been 
utterly overthrown, abdicated, and annihilated; and although I regret to differ with 
my distinguished friend from Wisconsin, [Mr. Doolittle. ] and to obliterate or dim the 
light of one single star that so gloriously blazons our meteor flag of beauty and 
of glory, yet 1 have to remind him that when this proclamation was issued, the Presi- 
dent did not regard these rebel States as in the Union under the Constitution. If these 
rebel States constituted stars on your flag, they were as the lost Pleiades gone darkling 
through space, unobserved by any human eye- They could not be detected by the 
mightiest telescopic power that the judiciary of the country has ever been able to 
bring to bear upon them. They were not only out of the Union, but they were sub- 
stantially and to all intents and purposes out of existence ; and so the President must 
have regarded them in his proclamation. 

Suppose they were present, subsisting, existing States under the Constitution, 
what rights had they ? They had a right, first, to form their own constitution without 
outward pressur.; ; they had a right to elect their Governor. The first act of the Pres- 
ident was to appoint them a governor. The constitution existing in North Carolina 
prior to 1861, fixed the qualification of voters ; the constitution under the rebel author- 
ity in North Carolina fixed the qualifications of voters. The President then exercised 
the power, as I have no doubt he had the right under the war power, to appoint for 
them a provisional governor, in which they were never consulted, for whom they never 
voted ; and he fixed also the qualification of their voters. Was that a power derived 
by the President from the war power? Clearly not. The war power deals with a con- 
flict of arms, the march of armies, the supremacy of the nation as represented by 
the Army and Navy of the United States. It has no reference to the inauguration of a 
civil government, or to the administration of local, municipal, or civil laws. 

But the President in his proclamation draws authority from another provision of the 
Constitution of the United Stales, and what is that? The provision that it shall he the 
duty of the President of the United States to see that the laws are faithfully executed. 
What laws ? Evidently the laws of the Uni ed States, the laws of Congress, the tr< a y 
stipulations of the Government, so far as they are to be carried out by congressional 
legislation. These are the laws that the President is bound to enforce under the Con- 
stitution, and no other laws. He has no right to interfere with the local admiui-tm- 
tion of justice in the several States. He has no authority to interfere with the rights 
of descent and distribution of estates, pf ordinary contracts, of the punishment of crimes 
under the State laws. He is simply bound to see that the laws of the United Mates are 
faithfully executed. What law of the United States, or what constitutional provision, 
made it the duty of the President to appoint provisional governors ? Clearly he had 
the power only as Commander-in-Chief of the army and Navy of the United States : and 
under that authority he has appointed provisional governors. Underthat power he 
has inaugurated State governments. Under that power alone these State governments 
have an existence. I contend that t lie power of the President of the United States over 
this subject eea-ed the moment, the war ceased, and certainly ceased the moment that 
the Congress of the United States convened. Who has the power under the Constitu- 
tion of the United States to determine in reference to the status and condition of these 
States? But first it is perhaps necessary to determine what under the Constitution is 
a State. A State, in public law, is thus defined by Chancellor Kent : 

I 



"A State, in the meaning of public law, is a complete or self-sufficient body of persons united to- 
gether in one community lor the defense Of their rights.'' 

This is the description pf a» State under the public law, and as recognized by the 
laws of nations, and is applicable to the United States as a State, and is not applicable 
to any single State under tLe Constitution of the United States. They have not the 
rights of sovereignty; they may not declare war; they may not negotiate peace ; they 
may not enter into foreign alliances ; they may not do a thousand things that sovereign 
and independent States may do. Then the terra "State" in public law characterizes 
the position simply of the Government of the United States. That is the government 
of one State as recognized by the laws of nations. The States under your Constitution 
are essentially and entirely different things. Their whole power is derived from the 
Constitution, and must be exercised under the Constitution, and the moment they re- 
pudiate their allegiance to the Government and trample upon the requirements of the 
Constitution, that very moment they cease to be States under the Constitution, and 
never having been States by virtue of public law, they have no entity and no exist- 
ence. It seems to me, then, that the mere definition of a State under public law and 
a State under the laws of the United S.tates, is sufficient to answer this whole argu- 
ment. But lest I may be suspected of unfairness I will read further : 

"A State, in the meaning of pviblie law, is a complete or self-sufficient body of persons united 
together in one community for tjle defense of their lights. It has affairs and interests; it deliber- 
ates and becomes a moral person, having understanding and will, and is susceptible of obligations 
and laws." 

Such is the definition of a State as defined by the distinguished Senator from Wis- 
consin. Then I contend that these are not States ; and ye., with an impudence with- 
out parallel in the history of the world, and with an insolence unknown before, these 
pretended States come here and claim to be represented in the Congress of the United 
States $ and their claims are echoed by their sympathizers here and elsewhere. For 
four years they have sought to overturn the Government ; they have brought upon 
the country this terrible war, involving an expense of $3,000,000,000, and involving 
the loss of more than half a million of your brave, martyred soldiers, who now sleep 
the sleep of death, victims of this terrible rebellion; and at the end ot four years they 
come here, without penitence, without contrition, without works meet for repentance, 
and demand under the Constitution the right to representation ! T^ese six million 
rebels in the South ciaim the right not only to represent themselves, but to represent 
four million loyal men whom they have disfranchised in the councils of the nation! 
And the distinguished Senator from Oregon, in the close of his speech, said — I quote 
his words : 

"Mr. President, inasmuch as the people of the South had no cause for the commencement of the 
rebel! >b, letus. be careful not to furnish them with one for the justification of similar attempts is the 
future by forcing upon them taxation without representation, placing them where they can avail 
ifaerhsetyes of ihe precedent sane ified by the struggle, of our. revolutionary fathers. Though they 
have been confessedly 'hi rhfe wrong and nave commuted a great crime, let us not violate our own 
sense of justice by heaping upon them the very outrages which justified the colonies in resistance 
to a similar exercise ot power on the part of Great Britain." 

Here, then, is the close of the argument of the distinguished Senator from Oregon. 
Hitherto, he admits, they have had no cause for rebellion ; but the argument is, 
that if we refuse now to admit them upon equal terms as sovereign States, they will 
have the same right to rebel against our authority that the thirteen colonies had to 
rebel against the tyranny of Great Britain. The proposition is'monstrous. What is it ? 
Have we arrived at a point in the history of this country when these people have a 
righ to demand recognition as sovereign States, a right to participate in the Government 
of the country ? Less than twelve months ago mighty armies in hostile array were 
dr.iwn up before Richmond and in different portions of the Confederacy to contest the 
supremacy of the national authority. The green grass has not yet had time to grow 
upon the graves of your illustrious and martyred dead, the wail of the widow is yet 
heard in the land ; the. tear of the orphan yet falls ; less than twelve months since tie 
hired emissary of the rebellion struck down the President in the capital of the nation, 
and we are told at this time if we refuse representation to these people we give them 
cause for rebellion ; and they are compared to our fathers who resisted British oppres- 
sion ; and that we should "conciliate," and yet further, that we should "compro- 
mise." What has ever been accomplished by conciliation and compromise ? I shall 
refer to that in a subsequent portion of my remarks. We are yet called upon to con- 
ciliate and to compromise ! Let it be known now and forever, let it be recorded in his- 
tory so that.the waters of another deluge can never efface it, that this triumph of the 
nation was a triumph of arms, a triumph of force ; that we owe nothiug to the mag- 



nanmity of the rebels arrayed against the Government. Not one single step have we 
ever taken for the suppression of this rebellion looking to conciliation which has ever 
for one moment weakened them or strengthened us. The withdrawal of the proclama- 
tions of Fremont and Hunter giving freedom to the slaves of rebels, the delay of Presi- 
dent Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation, these acts were attributed to* our fears 
and weakness, not to our strength and magnanimity. 

But, Mr. President, various plans of reconstruction are now proposed. I have refer- 
red to the plan of the President of the United States. It is said he left the qualification* 
of electors and the right of suffrage to the States because it properly belonged to the 
States. I grant you that under my construction of the Constitution, it belongs to the 
States having a right to exercise it, not having forfeited their rights by rebellion, but I 
deny that tht-se rebel States are in any such condition. What are the constitutional 
provisions upon the subject of suffrage ? First — 

•'The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be pre- 
scribed in each State by ihe Legislature thereof: but the Congress may at any time, bv law, make or 
alter such regulations except as to the place of choosing Senators." 

The President in his proclamation takes it for granted that it is right and proper to 
leave this whole question to the determination of the States, and I agree with him so 
far as the loyal States, who never forfeited their rights by rebellion, are concerned ; but, 
I contend there are no Stafes in these rebellious districts having a right to exercise any 
6uch authority. Then thereis another provision of the Constitution that the electors 
in each State to vote for members of Congress shall have the qualifications requisite for 
electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. Then there is still 
another grand guarantee in the Constitution, that the Government of the United States 
shall guaranty to each State in this Union a republican form of government. Now. I 
suppose that in the formation of that Constitution, its framefs and authors intended 
that, in the first place, these States should have a right to regulate the right of suffrage, 
but that right was to be limited and modified by the Congress of the United States when- 
ever that limitation and modification was necessary to insure a republican form of gov- 
ernment. That I suppose is the truth. 

But, Mr. President, letting the past effort of the President of the United States to re- 
organize these rebel States go by without making war upon it, I have simply this to 
sayj: if the President of the United States had a right to regulate suffrage at ail, he had 
a right to specify every condition under .which suffrage ,_shoulfi be exercised. In his 
proclamation, he has disfranchised fourteen classes of persons, all numerous, who were 
to have no right to vote, aud who were voters under the constitution of North Car- 
olina, and this exclusion was clearly right under the circumstances ; and if the Presi- 
dent had a right to say that a rebel under certain circumstances should not vote, he 
certainly had a right to say that a loyal man under all circumstances should vote. I 
make no war, as 1 before remarked, upon the President's plan of reconstruction if I un- 
derstand what that plan is. If by the President's plan of reorganization you simply 
mean that we approve what the President under the necessities of the case has done 
with a view to the reorganization of the rebel States, I have only this to say: that I 
find fault with nothing in the proclamations providing for a provisional government in 
North Carolina, and the other States lately in rebellion, except the right granted in 
those proclamations for rebels to vote and the disfranchisement of loyal people. As far 
as possible, for purposes of convenience, I would recognize the present State organiza- 
tions, I would recognize the present State boundaries. But if the President's plan means 
that we shall now, here and to-day, open wide the doors for the admission to these reb- 
el representatives into Congress, then I am against it. ; I am opposed to it ; they cannot 
be "admitted at present with benefit to themselves or safety to the nation, and the res- 
urrection trump' shall sound the summons of these rebels to the general judgment before 
my voice or vote shall summon them to these Halls. [Applause in the galleries.] I 
have seen no evidence that the President desires the immediate admission of rebel rep- 
resentatives. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER, ("Mr. Clakk'J) Order ! Order! 

Mr. LANE, of Indiana. But, Mr. President, it has been said that we are already pre- 
cluded, that our hands are tied, that Congress has already recognized the existence of 
these States. Let us, if you please, look for a moment at that position. 1 have al- 
ready shown you that Presidents Lincoln and Johnson in their proclamations recognized 
the lact that these States are dead, dead de jure, dead de facto, Juia thai they lm\<- no 
rights under the Constitution. They have no rights under their present organization 
— otherwise President Johnson would not have appointed provision i! governors for 
them ; otherwise he would not have fixed the qualifications ol their voters, and by twlo- 



6 

graphic communication, conveniently arranged, he would not have said to them, 
"Thus far shalt thou go and no further," do this and be States, do that and he out of 
the Union, until these organizations come to be the creatures of the Administration 
and not the voluntary act of the free people of the rebel States. It is of the very es- 
sence of a republican form of government that it shall have the approval of those to be 
governed by it. 

Now, how has Congress regarded this question ? You are told that Congress has 
recognized the present existence of these States, and how ? That we have passed an 
apportionment bill apportioning certain representation to the Southern States ; that 
we have passed a bill for the collection of a direct tax, and have apportioned that 
amoug the people of the rebel States under the Constitutional ratio and basis. All 
that we have done. What do these acts mean f They mean simply this : that the 
census had been taken , the duty of Congress to apportion the representation among 
the States was upon us ; and we legislated upon that subject, not so much with regard 
to the present condition and relation of these States, as with regard to an anticipated 
condition to exist in the future, when these States then in revolt against the United 
States should be entitled to representation, and when we should be in a condition to 
collect taxes from them. 

For instance, whenever the States were entitled to representation, their representa- 
tion should be under that bill ; and whenever we were prepared to collect taxes they 
should be collected under that bill. Thus far and no further has the action of Congress 
recognized these people as existing States. Yet we are told that Congress has by 
its legislation precluded itself and tied its hands, that it has said in the appor- 
tionment act and in the direct taxation act that these were existing Slates. I have 
shown you that that legislation had reference, and bv possibility could have had refer- 
ence, to nothing except the future. For instance, when they were entitled to repre- 
sentation it was fixed ; when we were prepared to collect taxes, that was the propor- 
tion in which it should be collected. 

But let me show you other acts of the Congress of the United States proving that the 
existence of these States was totally and entirely ignored. By the Constitution of the 
United States a majority of all the representatives in Congress in each House constitutes 
a quorum. By the deliberate action of the House of Representatives and the Senate of 
the United States, it was determined that a majority of the Senators and Representatives 
of all the loyal States represented here should constitute a quorum. Now, one of two 
things is true : eitiier that law was just and proper and constitutional, or all your legis- 
lation for the last three years has been unconstitutional. The Constitution fixes one 
quorum recognizing simply all the States. Then, so far as that act is concerned, both 
Houses of Congress are precluded from taking the ground now that these are existing 
States under the Constitution. 

But let me refer you to another instance showing clearly the view which the Congress 
of the United States took upon this whole subject. Prior to counting the votes for 
President and vice President in 1865, both Houses of Congress passed a joint resolution 
that whatsoever candidate might receive or had received a majority of the electoral votes 
cast by the loyal States that had never gone into the rebellion, should be declared the 
legal and constitutional President and Vice President of the United States. 

There are two express acts of Congress utterly ignoring, for the time being, the ex- 
istence of'these States, and the President of the United States to-day holds his high of- 
fice under Providence and under that joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress, ut- 
terly ignoring the present existence of the rebel States. Yet we are told that the anni- 
hilation of a State presupposes the annihilation of the Union. Is it so? By virtue of 
the Constitution itself", when nine States ratified the instrument we became the United 
States of America. Suppose that four States had never ratified it, then the argument 
is that though the Government of the United States would have been formed if 
four States had never ratified the Constitution, yet the moment one State with- 
draws, that very moment the Constitution is rendered void, the nation is destroyed and 
the Union cannot exist. It was only necessary to get the concurrence of nine States, 
leaving four oi^t,and we were acomplete Government under the laws of nations, having all 
the powers of a sovereign State even though four States had never entered the Union at all; 
and yet it is held that the annihilation of one single State would destroy the United States 
and the Union formed under the Constitution. If it had pleased Almighty God to strike 
out of existence, and to have caused the waves of the gulf s-tream to roll a hundred 
fathoms deep over South Carolina in 1801, the United States would nevertheless have 
been a proud, prosperous, and mighty nation, entitled to all the rights of sovereignty 
under the laws of nations. 



But, Mr. President, gentlemen state the argument very plausibly ; they say that se- 
cession is unconstitutional, that rebellion is illegal, and therefore null and void, and 
that a null and void act cannot operate to take any State out of the Union. An act may 
be null, and far from being void. An act may be illegal and unconstitutional, and far 
from being void. This rebellion was illegal a ad unconstitutional, but it was fraught 
with terrible consequences to th<e people of the South and the people of the North. 

But we are asked, did the ordinance of secession carry a single State beyond the pale 
of the Constitution ? I answer you that the simple ordinance of secession did not. 
They might have resolved, and resolved, and resolved a thousand times, and it would 
not have operated to carry them out of the Union. It was not the act of secession, but 
the act of open, violent, and flagrant war made upon the Union which destroyed their 
right to representation. They might have resolved to secede every day in the 
year, and still have abided by the laws of the United States, and their reso- 
lutions would have had no effect. The moment they declared war and became 
not only domestic traitors but alien enemies and belligerents, that very mo- 
ment, for the time being, their constitutional relations to the United States were changed, 
and they can only be restored by the Congress of the United States. The people have 
too long looked to the President for a plan of restoration and reconstruction. They 
have looked to him for that which he has no power to grant. Look to Congress. Con- 
gress alone, embodying the will of the people, in whom resides the sovereignty of the 
nation, can recall and restore these States to their proper relations to the General Gov- 
ernment. 

Sir, that is the Constitution. The Constitution says that the United States shall 
guaranty to every State in the Union a republican form of government. How can the 
President carry out that guarantee ? He may appoint his marshals with your consent ; 
he may appoint his postmasters with your consent; he may appoint his revenue offi- 
cers; but suppose in the meantime an aristocracy is organized in any one of these 
States, or an oligarchy, or a despotism, the President is powerless to enforce this guar- 
antee of the Constitution. It can only be done by legislation — legislation in Congress ; 
and lest I may state that principle too strongly, I desire to refer to the Supreme Court 
decision in the case of Luther t«. Borden, not for the purpose ([ disclaim all such pur- 
posej of endeavoring to shed additional light on this decision after the able and exhaus- 
tive argument which we have heard from the Senators from Massachurets and Maryland, 
and other Senators, but simply for the purpose of preserving the consistency and. con- 
tinuity of my own agreement. This is a decision of the Supreme Court that I refer to 
with much more pleasure than I shall have if I have occasion to refer to the decision in 
the Dred Scott case, for then the Supreme Court was the representative of the highest 
legal learning, ability, and integrity in the nation. Mr. Chief Justice Taney, in Luther 
vs. Borden, in 7 Howard 3 said : 

" The fourth section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States provides that ' the 
United States shall guaranty to every State in this fjniou a republican form of Government, and shall 
protect each of them against invasion ; and, on application o; the. Legislature, or the Executive, 
when .the Legislature cannot r^.convened,-),H.gai,nst domestic violence^ Under thi- article of the 
Constitution it rests with Congress to decide what government is the established one in a State ; for, 
as the United States guaranty to each State a rep iblican form of government^ Congress must neces- 
sarily decide what government is established in State; before it can determine whether it is republi- 
can or not in form. And when the Senators :■ d Representatives of the States are admitted to the 
councils of the nation, the authority of the " • .ernm^nt under which they are appointed, as well as 
its republican character, is recognized h - th • proper Constitutional authority, and its decision is 
binding upon every other department of the Government, and cannot be questioned in any judicial 
tribunal." 

Here, then, is the broad ground asserted that Congress has the power to guaranty a 
republican form of government, and consequently in the event of a conflict, as was the 
case in Rhode Island, between two separate organizations, each claiming to be the State 
of Rhode Island, the Supreme Court says Congress has a right to decide, by the ad- 
mission or non-admission of members, which is the proper State government in Rhode 
Island, and thatis a political question to be decided by Congress alone. It is not sub- 
ject to any appeal to the courts of the country or to the President of the United States. 
It is final and conclusive ; Congress alone has this power. 

Now, Mr. President, conceding as all lawyers must the existence of the power, the 
duty necessarily results to exercise the power, and Congress is now called upon to de- 
cide whether there are any Slate organizations which can be recognized ; and when Con- 
gress shall decide there is no appeal to the Supreme Court ; there is no appeal to the Presi- 
dent. The voice of the nation has been heard, and it is final, and final forever. And 
it is well that this high power is reposed in Congress. Otherwise you would make 
your President a dictator ; otherwise the voice of the people might never be heard. 
Sir, we have not run to meet this issue ; we have not forced it upon the country. It 



8 

is upon ns. We stand in the p-esence to-day of terrible realities. Timid counsels, 
ami illusory and speculative theories will no longer prevail. We to-day are to stand 
true to our own grand mission, or we are to prove recreant to the high trust repose l in 
us. Wh.it is, under Providence, the sublime mission now devolved upon the Congress 
of the United States? "To break every yoke and let the oppressed go tree ;" tobatter 
down prison walls and prison bars ; to declare the equality of all men before the law, 
as they are equal before God. This is the grand mission which is now upon us, which 
we may not avoid or evade. 

And, Mr. President, history is continually repeating itself. After three quarters of 
a century, after vve have run the round of long out age and oppression against the 
poor African, to-day we have come back to the proud stand-point where our ancestors 
stood when they gave utterance to that p ou 1, that noble enunciation which shook 
the despotisms of the world, that "all men are created equal," have inalienable 
rights. After making the whole circle of history — it has taken us seventy-live years — 
we have come back to the proud position of the fathers! and we stand upon that prin- 
ciple, and there may stand with safety. Compromises, conciliations, temporary expe- 
dients, are evanescent and pass away, but principles are eternal, eternal as truth, 
eternal as the attributes of God himself. Then let us stand not upon expediency, but 
upon that principle enunciated by the fathers in the Declaration of Independence. 

But, sir, I have been led aside from the investigation of the congressional and exe- 
cutive a '.-tion upon this subject. I have shown yon that some acts have been passed 
by "ongress utterly ignoring the present existence of these States, as for instance in 
the quorum rule and the law regulating the election of President. I have shown you 
that, while the taxation bill and the apportionment bill seemed to recognize the pre- 
sent ex'stence of the States, they evidently look to the future for execution, and are 
provided not for a present contingency, but for a possible contingency which may arise 
in the future. I have shown you that the presidential action on this subject on the 
one hand has reeogni/.ed the existence of the States, and upon the other has utterly 
ignored that existence. The proclamation appointing provisional governors ignores to 
all intents and purposes the constitutional existence of these States. The proclama- 
tion of the Secretary of State recently issued, stating that the constitutional amend- 
ment bad received the sanction of three-fourths of the States, counting the rebel 
States, seems to recognize the existence of the Stat-s. 

Then the action both of Congress and of the President on this subject has been con- 
tradictory ; but for the purpose of my argument 1 shall take it for granted that these 
States in their present anomalous and unanticipated position are not in such a condi- 
tion as to participate in the government of the country. Then how shall we restore 
them ? You have listened to the presidential plan for restoration. I now propose to 
show you some plans which have been suggested in Congress, and to direct your atten- 
tion to the various congressional plans for the restoration of these States, 

Some must vote under any plan of restoration, for the consent of the governed, ex- 
pressed and known through those whom they select for the purpose, is the foundation 
of government. It has been said that the right to vote gives the power to rule, and 
under our system of government that is a truism which needs not to be proven. Ours 
is a Federal elective kepublic ; representation is recognized, and the right to select 
rulers is the right to rule. Hence the importance of the right of sulfrage in this coun- 
try. Now, suppose that the loyal white voters alone in the South are recognized — a 
plausible theoiy and not without its supporters — let us see how that plan would 
work. 

I have seen a calculation, which I accept as correct, tbat nine cut often of the white 
voters in the rebel States have participated in the rebellion, excluding those excluded 
by the President's proclamation. We shall then have only about one hundred and 
twenty thousand loyal white voters, a number far too small to inaugurate and carry into 
successful operation a government. Suppose you allow only loyal voters in the rebel 
States to organize government, and recognize simply the loyal citizens as the State, then 
how does it stand ? You have in the eleven rebel States but one hundred and twenty 
thousand loyal voters — a basis too small, altogether too small, to answer the guarantee 
of a republican form of government. Then I take it for granted that no one will now 
contend that you can organize these eleven States with one hundred and twenty thous- 
and voters ; and if you could you would give those one hundred and twenty thousand 
voters as much power as one million voters in the North. Then the inequality of the 
measure, aside from its impracticability, would at once discard this as a basis of recon- 
struction. We cannot rely on the one hundred and twenty thousand loyal votes aloue 
in tho midst of a population giving one million two hundred and fifty thousand votes. 



Let us take another plan of reconstruction ; let all the loyal and disloyal white voters 
vote ; what then ? The rebels outvote the oyal voters in the proportion of ten to one. 
If you let the loyal whites and the rebel white voters reconstruct, the rebels outnum- 
ber the loyal in the proportion of ten to one, as before stated ; you give over, tied hand 
and loot and east into utter darkness, the loyal whites and the loyal blacks into the con- 
trol of the million rebel voters. Is that to be tolerated for a single moment ? That 
which they failed to accomplish by force of arms they seek to accomplish by the ballot. 
They beleaguered the capital for long months, and their Haunting banner was seeu in 
view of the Capitol. They failed to take it. Now they propose to take it, and you 
propose to give it to them by means of reconstruction. In the act of triumph have we 
been defeated, in the hour of victory are we the vanquished? 

But we are told these gentlemen surrendered and they are entitled to magnanimous 
treatment and kind consideration. How did they surrender ? When further opposi- 
tion was perfectly hopeless. You owe nothing to negotiation. You owe nothing to 
compromise. This peace was achieved at the mouth of the canuor, was written in 
blood by the point of the bayonet upon a subjugated confederacy ; and yet gentlemen 
talk about rights they have acquired by surrender ! It was the triumph of force and 
nothing elsei 

Let us look at these other plausible plans of reconstruction, for bear in mind that in 
any plan devised somebody must vote, otherwise we cannot have a Federal elective re- 
public, otherwise we cannot carry out the guarantees of Che Constitution. Somebody 
must vote, and if the States are to be admitted immediately, somebody must vote now, 
and who shall that body be ? 

There is another inequality, a gross inequality, in permitting all the rebels and all 
the loyal whites to vote. By the freedom of the blacks there is added one and a half 
million to the representative population of the rebel States. Under the ratio as con- 
tained in the present provision of the Constitution three-fifths of the blank slaves are 
counted for purposes of taxation and representation ; they are chattels for one purpose, 
things for another ; persons for one purpose, property for another. We have come to 
the point now when we propose to strike down this anomaly in the Constitution of the 
United States. One and a half million is added to their representative population. Do 
you propose to have them come in with that increased power? I thought you were to 
punish traitors and to make treason odious ; and how do you propose to punish traitors ? 
By an amnesty wide and sweeping in its operation, and by inviting these rebels into 
the Halls of Congress with an increase of fourteen members to their representation ? 
Is not this a strange mode of punishing traitors and making treason odious ? And yet 
without the amendment now proposed to the Constitution of the United States, we not 
only receive them back with all their rights and privileges under the present Constitu- 
tion unimpaired, but it is proposed voluntarily to give them a representation of four- 
teen more members in the House of Representatives. What have they done that they 
appeal thus mightily to our sympathies, that we should not only invite them back, 
consider the past as utterly gone and obliterated, and ask them to share with us the 
equal privileges of this free Government, but with the privilege of fourteen additional 
members of Congress in the House of Representatives ? I take it for granted, then, 
that this plan of reconstruction has no friends and no supporters in the Congress of 
the United States. 

By the freedom of the blacks, as before stated, one million and a half is added to the 
representative population of the Southern States. Before the rebellion, six millions in 
the South had the political power of eight and a half millions in the free States, and 
if no amendment in the basis of representation as contemplated is made, they will have 
about the same political power with ten millions in the North, and then they would not 
represent their slaves as slaves, for every one has now become a freeman and is counted 
for the purposes of taxation and representation as a man — a free man. 

Another plan is to let all the loyal white men vote and all the rebels vote. Let us 
see how this will operate. This great inequality will still exist in the relative political 
influence of a voter, North and South, and the latter would have about double the 
power. Very nearly the same inequality as exists under the President's proclamation 
would still exist, and the rule would be in the hands of the rebels, they being largely 
in the majority. 

Another plan proposed is to let all the loyal whites and blacks vote, and as many reb- 
els as these voters can control; and why as many rebels as these voters can control ? — 
Simply because we do not propose to give this Government, North or South, into the 
hands of rebel voters. We do not propose any such thing. 



10 

There is another plan, now exploded, of colonization, utterly impracticable, and so 
determined by the enlightened judgment of Congress and the whole people of the United 
States. I will not disguise the fact that I should prefer a separation of the races if it 
were practicable. I well know that prejudice exists against the colored race — a preju- 
dice almost ineradicable; but it is wholly impracticable to separate them now. We 
have no territory for them ; we have no means adequate to it, and we cannot force them 
as freemen to emigrate whether they will or not. Then I throw out of the calculation 
entirely this whole plan of colonization. 

We are brought to the question', upon what safe basis can the States be restored to 
their constitutional relations to the United States ? It cannot be done upon this basis 
alone of the loyal voters, for they are inconsiderable, and would be utterly overwhelmed 
by the rebel voters. It cannot be done by giving the rebel voters the power to control 
the legislation of the country. Nov.-, suppose for one. moment that you should deter- 
mine that a reconstruction should take place based upon the votes of the rebels, what 
would be the result ? What are the great questions now engaging the attention of the 
people, and which will engross the legislation of the country for the next half century? 
Questions of taxation and revenue. Do you suppose they will willingly tax themselves 
to pay the interest upon the immense debt created for their subjugation and over- 
throw ? 

There are other questions you will be called upon to decide. You will have to pro- 
vide a fund for the payment of your invalid pensioners. Think you that they will vote 
willingly to raise money to pay the pensioners of your soldiers when their own invalid 
pensioners are excluded ! Can you hope for any cordial co-operation between the reb- 
els and yourselves upon any of these. great subjects of national legislation ? Suppose 
you admit them here in the Senate, they not only vo.te upon all these high questions, 
but they counsel in reference to executive appointments ; they counsel in reference to 
the conlirmation of treaties'; and their power for evil is almighty the moment you ad- 
mit them with all the privileges of regularly organized and constituted States. I tremble 
in view of the evil consequences which would result, from the admission of rebel mem- 
bers, to your national debt, to the national credit, the plighted faith of the nation to 
your bondholders, the plighted faith of the nation to your invalid soldiers, the plighted 
faith of the nation to your living and dead heroes. For what have they contended du- 
ring the last four years ? The national Union and the integrity of the national territo- 
ry ; and to what lame and impotent conclusion have you arrived when you say now, 
after the war is over, these men are to be called upon in council with yourselves to de- . 
termine all this legislation, and to fix the very terms upon which they are to be admit- 
ted to participate in the Government of the United States. I, for one, will never sanc- 
tion any such plan. 

But what is the remedy ? I have already shown you that the rebels are not fit to 
vote. Let me show you further that they are not and cannot be tit to legislate. What 
is there in their antecedents, prior to the beginning of the rebell.on, which can lead 
us to suppose they are at present qualified voters? They rebelled without cause 
against a Government which they had only felt in its benefactions. They rebelled 
without cause against free institutions. They rebelled for tne purpose of establishing 
an aristocracy of caste and color and wealth' and blood upon the tree institutions of 
the United States. It was the old war renewed a thousand times of pretended Demo- 
crats against democracy. This lay at the foundation of their rebellion. They had no 
single r.'iuse of complaint against the National Government — not one. They simply 
rebelled lor the purpose of establishing an aristocracy founded upou slavery. Is there 
anything in the inception or prosecution of this war convincing you that they are now 
fit to participate with u-< in the government of the country? How was the war com- 
menced ? Under the administration of that weak and wicked old man, James Bucha- 
nan, treason was hatched in his own Cabinet. They commenced by betraying the 
country, by scattering your Navy, by taking possession of your arsenals, by stealing 
your arms, bv violating their oaths to support the Constitution, abandoning your ser- 
vice and your Hag. This was the commencement of the war ; and how, I ask you, has 
it been prosecuted ? At every step in open violation of the laws of civilized warfare ; 
by the murder of prisoners in cold blood ; by the starvation of your prisoners in pri- 
son pens ; and by trampling under foot all the high sanctions of national law and mo- 
rals. These measures have characterized the prosecution of the war. What is their 
present position? How do they stand now? You lind in the South various indications 
of their temper and disposition. You have a law upon your statute-book that no man 
shall hold office except he shall take a certain test oath that he has not willingly ren- 
dered aid and assistance to the enemies of the country. Under these pretended State 



11 

organizations they Itaye held elections, and in open defiance of that law they have 
elected rebels to seats in the Congress of the United States, men who boast of their 
services to the " confederacy," whose only claim to support consisted in the fact that 
they were heroes of the rebellion. 

We find the same tone evinced in many of the southern Legislatures. What is their 
legislation in reference to the freedmen? The slave codes in substance is still in force. 
Some, I grant you, have repealed the ordinances of secession ; some have declared 
them null and void ; but not one of them has done justice to the colored freedmen/ — 
these orphan children of the Republic — these warns of the nation, whom you are 
bound to protect, and whose freedom before God and man you are bound to maintain. 
Not a single one of these rebel State Legislatures has protected the rights of the freed- 
men. They hiss your national airs, they spit upon your national flag, they celebrate 
rebel victories, and they glorify rebel heroes ; and yet you are asked to admit them 
into this body! Oh, yes— admit Toombs and Davis and Wigfall and Breckinridge, and 
all the red-handed traitors who leit these Halls so defiantly in L S '>1 1 

Look even to the State of Kentucky. She has maintained her loyal standing in the 
Union ; what is her present position ? You were told recently that the operations of 
the Freedmen's Bureau should not be extended to Kentucky. Oh, no! Leave loyal 
Kentucky untouched ! She has filled her quota in the army of the United States. 
Yes, sir; and more than filled her quota in the rebel army! When the President of 
the United States issued his first proclamation for troops, how was it answered by the 
Governor of Kentucky ? With insult, outrageous insult, aud a refusal to furnish a 
man! The people of Kentucky then placed themselves upon the ground of neutrality 
— a ground as utterly unconstitutional and revolutionary as wa9 secession itself; and 
recently, in the proud old Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Legislature has repealed 
all laws disfranchising rebel voters in that State! To-day they have a right to vote ; 
to-day they have a right to hold office ; to-day their slave code rules with a rod of iron 
the freedmen in that State : and yet we are told that it is improper to apply the pro- 
visions of the Freedmen's Buieau bill to the State of Kentucky! 

I say these things "more in sorrow than in anger." A native of that proud old 
Commonwealth, I glory yet in her history ; but it is in her history in her palmier 
days, when the clarion voice of Henry Clay in defense of the rights of mankind and 
the : ights of the nation was heard throughout that old Commonwealth. I listen now 
in vain for that trumpet-toned voice which was like the bugle-call to battle for the 
right. If in Kentucky the rebel element is in such a condition, what is it in the States 
lately in rebellion ? 

Before I pass from the noble Commonwealth of Kentucky let me say that thousands 
upon thousands of her sons and citizens have sealed their devotion to the Union with 
their blood upon the battle-field. No braver and nobler troops have filled the armies 
of the Union than have gone from Kentucky. I speak not of loyal Kentucky in my 
censure, but of the rebel element in Kentucky, which I believe now predominates in 
that State. So much, then, for their present position. .Are the rebel States in any fit 
condition to be invited here to participate with us in the government of this country ? 
In my opinion they are not. 

I have spoken of the presidential plan of reconstruction and of other plans. I now 
propose to speak of the congressional plans, and I invite the attention of the Senate 
and of the people to these plans of reconstruction, for they alone will prevail. You 
will look in vain to the President to inaugurate a system of reconstruction. He lias 
no power under the Constitution, however patriotic his intentions may be. What, 
then, are the congressional plans ? I shall first speak of the present proposed amend- 
ment to the Constitution which has already passed the popular branch of Congress and 
is now before us. It is that the basis of representation shall lie the actual number of 
inhabitants, casting out of the account Indians not taxed and all those that shall be 
excluded in any State on account of color. 

This amendment, as I have already endeavored to show, will do away with much of 
the inequality now existing, and which would exist under a different state of things, 
the blacks being all free. So far as the amendment goes, I approve of it, and I think I 
shall vote for it, but with a distinct understanding that it is not all that we are requir- 
ed to do, that it is not the only amendment to the constitution that Congress is requir- 
ed to make. 

Then there is a counter-proposition, introduced by the distinguished Senator from 
Massachusetts, [Mr. Sumnkh,] which proposes to declare by an act of Congress that no 
one shall be excluded from the right of suffrage on account of race or color. If Con- 
gress had the undoubted and unquestionable authority to pass such a law, it gets at 



12 

the result more readily than does the constitutional amendment ; but it is doubtful to 
my mind whether Congress has this power. I believe, under the Constitution, the 
right to determine the qualifications of electors is left with the several States. This law 
would operate upon all the States. My State having forfeited by treason no one of her 
constitutional rights, I do not, believe that Congress has a right to intervene between 
her and her people and fix the qualifications of voters. However I might be willing to 
yield the question that the rebel States having forfeited all their rights, such a law of 
Congress would be constitutional as applied to them, I cannot recognize the proposition 
that such a law is constitutional as applied to States in the Union who have forfeited 
none of their political rights or franchises ; and even if I were clear upon the subject I 
should not be willing to leave the legislation in this shape, for it would open an ever- 
lasting controversy in the courts as to its constitutionality, and the matter would al- 
ways be in doubt. However good in itself; it is, as I think, ineffective in its operation, 
for the reasons so ably set forth by the distinguished Senator from Maine, [Mr. Fessen- 
den,] yesterday. It is a noble declaration, but a simple declaration, a paper bullet that 
kills no one, and fixes and maintains the rights of no one. 

Then the same thing is sought to be achieved by the amendmeut proposed by the 
distinguished Senator from Missouri, [Mr. Henderson,] which is a simple amendment 
to the Constitution of the United States, that no one shall be excluded from the'exercise 
of the right of suffrage on account of race or color. That begins at the right point. 
The only objection to it is that its operation cannot be immediate, and in the mean time 
the rebels may be permitted to vote, and its adoption by the various State Legislatures 
is exceedingly doubtful. I should not doubt, however, that we might secure its adop- 
tion by three fourths of the loyal States who have never seceded, and I beleive that 
whenever that question is presented the Supreme Court of the United States will de- 
termine that a ratification by that number of States is a constitutional approval of an 
amendment so as to make it the supreme law of the land. I have no doubt about it. 

Mr. President, what do we propose to do ? We see that it will not do to give power 
in the rebel States to the rebels. We see that the Union white men are but and incon- 
siderable minority, and they cannot be trusted there to organize States. Then if the 
States are to be organized immediately, the only question is whether the right of suf- 
frage shall be given to rebel white men or loyal black men. The amendment of the 
Senator from Missouri meets that issue squarely in the face. Whatsover I desire to do 
I will not do by indirection, I trust I shall always be brave enough to do whatsoever I 
think my duty requires, direwtly and not by indirection. 

What is the argument in favor of this proposed amendment to the Constitution ? — 
That by limiting the basis of representation you will induce the people of the South 
to give the right of suffrage to the negro. In the first place, I do not believe it will have 
that effect ; and in the second, if it would, you are asking me to do by indirection that 
which I as a brave and honest man prefer to do directly. Still, this amendment having 
been passed by the House of Representatives, and having received toe approbation of 
the distinguished joint committee on reconstruction, and looking on it as a step in the 
right direction, I shall vote for it, but with the distinct understanding again expressed 
that other amendments are to follow. 

What are some of these other amendments which, in my opinion, should follow prior 
to any restoration of the rebel States ? You should first pass an amendment to the Con- 
stitution forbidding for all time to come the assumption of the rebel debts and forbid- 
ding the repudiation of the national debt. This should be approved by the Legislatures 
of the rebel States, and any amendments of the constituents of the rebel States suould 
be approved by a vote of the people. The guarantees they have given in reference to 
the rights of loyal men and in reference to the rights of the freedmen are not enough. 
Though their conventions acknowledge emancipation to-day, they may call conventions 
the day after you admit them and fix their constitutions differently, or they may so leg- 
islate as to oppress the freedman and make his condition of freedom more intolerable 
than was his condition of slavery. 

Then there should be another constitutional amendment passed requiring and t-m- 
powering in express terms the Congress of the United States to carry out and give effect 
to every guarantee of the. Censtitution. Heretofore the guarantee of a republican form 
of government has been a dead letter. I wish Congress, by a constitutional amendment, 
to furnish power to carry out every single guarantee of the Constitution, most especi- 
ally that provision of the Constitution guarantyfying a republican form of government 
to every State. The trainers of the Constitution, the founders of the Republic them- 
selves recognized the existence of the seperate States with these unrepublicau provis- 
ions in then* constitutions ; but we are required now to begin anew. Old thmgs are 



13 

done away, and all things have become new when four million people have been sud- 
denly enfranchised in this our day. You are called upon to admit South Carolina, for 
instance. What questions have you to decide preliminary to that admission ? What 
conditions precedent to admission exist in the Constitution ? First, you are to say upon 
your oaths and upon your consciences that South Carolina presents a republican form 
government. Can any man in his sober senses, reared in the light of free institutions, 
in the middle of the nineteenth century ; can any free American citizen, with one sin- 
gle impulse or aspiration of liberty warming his heart, say that that State government 
is republican in form which disfranchises a majority of its citizens? It is not republi- 
can in form a cording to any American definition of republicanism. The freedmen are 
citizens of the United States ; not citizens under the naturalization law, not citizens by 
virtue of any treaty, but citizens because they are born natives to the soil. That makes 
them citizens. To fortify this conclusion, let me read from Mr. Justice Story's Com- 
mentaries on the Constitution : 

" It has ahv'ays been well understood among jurists in this country that the citizens of each State 
constitute the body-politic of each community, called ' the people of the States;' and that the citizens 
of each State in the Union arc ipso facto citizens of the United States." — 3 Story, p. 5§6. 

Colored men have been fordong years citizens in many of the States, and are ipso 
facto citizens of any State of the United States into which they may choose to go. Let 
me read another authority : 

" The citizens of each Slate constituted the citizens of the United States when the Constitution was 
adopted. The rights which appertain to them as citizens of tnose respective Commonwealths ac- 
companied them in the formation of the great compound Commonwealth which ensued. They be- 
came citizens of the latter, without ceasing to be citizens of the former; and he who was subsequent- 
ly born a citizen of aState became at the moment of his birth a citizen of the United States.'' — Kawle 
on the Constitution, p. 80. 

Chancellor Kent is still more explicit on the present point, for he says distinctly : 

" If a slave born in the United States be manumitted, or otherwise lawfully discharged from bond- 
age, or if a hia^k man be oorn within the United States, and born free, he becomes henceforward a 
Citizen." — - Kent's Commentaries, fourth edition, p. 257, note. 

There is the direct declaration of Chancellor Kent that the moment the slaves are 
manumitted they become citizens of the United States. Before manumission they 
were held as slaves and treated as chattels ; the moment they are manumitted they be- 
come citizens to all intents and purposes. I doubt not then, that, this construction of 
the Constitution is true. 

But I was proceeding further to speak in reference to the Congressional plan of resto- 
ration as considered not as antagonistic but as auxiliary to the Presidential plan of re- 
construction. We have various propositions for the amendment of the Constitution of 
the United States. We have a bill lately passed by this body for the enlargement of 
the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau, giving protection to the freedmen whom we are 
bound to protect. By the most sacred of all obligations — obligations of gratitude, duty, 
and interest — we are bound to protect them. They are free by the proclamation of 
your President, by the amendment of your Constitution, by the valor and prowess and 
blood poured freely upon the battle-field. They are free, and it is ours to maintain 
their freedom. The bill to enlarge the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau is one of the 
most important measures in the series of Congressional acts for the restoration of these 
States, every provision of it. Then there is another act recently passed by this body 
to secure the rights of ail the citizens of the United States where the grand declara- 
tion is made, in affirmance of what was previously the Constitutional enactment, that 
these manumitted slaves become citizens upon their manumission, and they are now to 
all intents and purposes citizens of the United States. Shall you enfranchise them or 
shall you hold them as a subject race? You are told, and told with some confidence, 
that if you permit them to exercise the right of suffrage you will invite a war of races 
which will end in their extermination. Let us look for a moment to that proposition. 

In dll the thirteen colonies ("with the single exception of South Carolina, whoso 
treasonable history has marked and marred the annals of the nation from the revolu- 
tion downj they were citizens ; they were voters and citizens in almost every State 
whose constitution was formed during or immediately subsequent to the era of the 
revolution. Did any such results follow ? Were there any riots and bloodshed ? 

Gentlemen tell us that the cases are not analogous, because there were but U'W and 
sparse and scattered populations of blacks in the midst of a large population of whites 
in the Northern States where they were permitted to vote, and therefore it is not a fair 
test. I say they were permitted to vote in North Carolina ; they w ere declared citi- 



14 

sens by the Supreme Court of that, State. They were permitted to vote in Tennessee. 
There was no outbreak or insurrection in either of those States. If you wish to avoid 
a war of races, how can that be accomplished? By doing right; t>y fixing your plan 
of reconstruction upon the indestructible basis of truth and justice. What lesson is 
taught by history ? The grand lesson is taught there that rebellions and insurrections 
have grown out of real or supposed wrong and oppression. A war of races ! And 
you are told to look to the history of Ireland, and to the history of Hungary. Why 
is it that revolution and insurrection are always ready to break out in Hungary ? He- 
cause, forsooth, the iron rule of Austria has stricken down the natural rights of the 
masses, it is a protest of humanity against tvranny and oppression, that produces re- 
bellion and revolution, So in the bloody history of the Irish insurrections. Suppose 
the English Parliament had given equal rights to the Irish, had enfranchised the Catho- 
lics in the reign of Henry VIII, long ere this peace and harmony would have prevailed 
between England and Ireland ; but the very fact that a vast portion of a people are 
disfranchised sows the seeds of continual and ever-recurring revolution and insurrec- 
tion. It cannot be otherwise. These insurrections and revolutions, which are but the 
protest of our common humanity against wrong, are one of the scourges in the hands 
of Providence to compel men to do justice and to observe the right. It is the law of 
Providence, written upon every page of history, that Cod's vengeance follows man's 
wrong and oppression, and it will always be so. if you wisi-i to avoid a war of races, 
if you wish to produce harmony and peace among these people, you must enfranchise 
them all. 

But we are told that they are not now fit to be voters. Grant it that they are not fit 
for voters, and what is the remedy ? What are the elements which enter into the 
character of a man that makes iiim a lit voter'/ Intelligence and love of country. 
These are the elements. Will you give the intelligent voter of the >oulh, who is a 
traitor, the ballot and deny it to the patriotic voter simply because he is black and it 
may be ignorant ? There is more safety in an uneducated patriotic ballot than there 
is in a cultivated felon's vote, who is ready to destroy the Government at any mo- 
ment ly his treason. I grant that the blacks are unfitted at present to exercise 
right of suffrage. They have groaned for two hundred years, more than two centu- 
ries, under oppression. It was a crime for them to learn to read and write ; the word 
of God was sealed to them ; they were regarded as mere property and chattels ; mer- 
chandise was made of their blood and bones, body and soul, and their manhood was, 
utterly ignored. Is it anything strange that they should not be now as well prepared 
to vote as the white citizens ? I grant they are not ; and my plan of reconstruction 
would be this : to pass an amendment to the Constitution of the United States that a£ 
ter a certain length of time — say one, two, three, or five years — all persons, black and 
white, without any distinction of race or color, who could read the Constitution of the 
United States, should henceforth be voters, not disfranchising any now entitled to 
vote. I would give these people the inducement to learn and to cultivate themselves, 
and before that amendment took effect I would disfranchise the rebel voter just as 
long; and when the rebel voter was allowed to deposit his ballot, I would arm the 
freedman with the ball t to meet him. That is what 1 would do. This implies d-day. 
and delay is now wijat we want. The danger is of precipitate action. Delay is now 
what we need. The infant in its tiny fingers plays to-day with a handfull of acorns, 
but two hundred years hence, by the efflux of time, those acorns are the mighty ma- 
terial out of which navies are built, the monarchs of the forest defying the shock of the 
storm and the whirlwind. Time is ' mighty agent in all these affairs, and we should 
appeal to time. We are not ready yet for a restoration upon rebel votes; we are not 
ready yet for restoration upon colored votes ; but, thank God, we are willing and aide 
to wait. We have the Government, we have; the Constitution of the United States, we 
have the Army and the Navy, the vast moral and material power of the Republic. We 
can enforce the laws in all the rebel States, and we can keep the peace until such time 
as they may be restored with safety to them and safety to us. 

There is another measure of reconstruction growing directly out of the necessity of 
the times, and that is the reconstruction of this District. I propose to reconstruct 
this District by voting for the passage of Uhe House suffrage bill. I should prefer to 
vote for a qualified suffrage, requiring education. I hope the Senate will take that 
view of it ; but if the Senate should not, and I am called to the rugged issue, I shall 
go straight forward and carry out the convictions of my own sense of duty, regardless 
of opposition upon the right or on the left — not exactly regardless, for I should regret 
to find myself compelled to differ with friends here and elsewhere, for whose good 



15 

opinion I have such high regard ; but in this as in all other questions I prefer to walk 
at peace with the man within, to satisfy my own conscience. I have arrived at a time 
of life when I only desire to do right and look not to the consequences. Visions of 
glory flit less palpably before me ; I am not as I have been ; the airy halls which a 
young imagination had peopled with gratified ambition are now desolate. I propose to 
leave such a record as 1 shnll not blush hereafter when I review it. to place myself 
upon^the rock of eternal truth, the rock of the Constitution, the rights of man, and 
the rights of our common humanity. Upon this rock I stand, firm as upon the earth 
beneath my feet, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

But, Mr. Presi ent, gentlemen ask us when shall these States be restored. Not by 
my vote, until all these constitutional gurantees are placed utterly beyond all recall; 
not until the leading traitors in this rebellion shall have beeu punished, and shall have 
met the felon's doom. Caius Marcius sent these words to the praetor of Rome : " Tell 
the praetor that you saw Caius Marcius sitting amid the ruins of Carthage." I see 
Jeffeivon Davis sitting amid the ruins of eleven devastated and desolated States ; but 
he was the artificer of this terrible ruin himself, and 1 have no sympathy or compassion 
for him. Mercy to him is cruelty to the Republic. Mercy to him is a i insult to your 
living heroes. Mercy to him is a mockery of the dead. Justice requires that he, should 
be punished, and punished sternly ; and the rebels should be taught to know now and 
forever that this is a Government able to govern, capable of government, ready to 
forgive, but if needs be, ready to punish. 1 believe that the cause of justice will not 
be thoroughly vindicated until some such example is made ; not that I have any 
vengaence or any bitterness in my heart, it is too full of compassion and sympathy and 
love for a bleeding Republic to entertain magnanimous feelings toward the traitors 
and enemies of the country. 

But gentlemen ask us when shall this return take place ? I answer the question 
thus : when the constitutional amendments shall all have passed Congress, and been 
ratified by a competent number of States ; when the State legislation shall b» conformed 
to the changed condition of public affairs ; when the colored man shall be reco^niz-d as 
a citizen and as a man, and his rights shall be t rotectet. 1 ; when the Freedmen's 
Bureau bill shall have passed both Houses, and been put in practical operation ; when the 
bill to preserve the rights of all the citizens shall have been received this sanction of 
the President ; when the State constitutions shall have been ratified by the popular 
vote — then, and not until then, shall I vote for the representation of the rebel States ; 
but to this declaration I will make one or two exceptions. 

I believe to-day, if I were called upon to vote upon my oath and upon my conscience, 
I should vote for the admission of the representatives from Tennessee. I should do it 
on peculiar reasons, not applicable to the people of the rebel States generally. The 
loyal people of Tennessee had organized their State government without any interfer- 
ence from abroad ; their Legislature had met, their constitutional convention had as- 
sembled and had put in operation a new constitution and all the machinery of a State 
government complete, prior to the surrender of Lee, prior to the collapse of tile rebellion. 
They were, in my opinion, in a constitutional relation to the United States, so far as 
they could be under the circumstances, before the suppression of the rebellion and before 
the surrender of Lee. I know something of the history of that patriotic people. Those 
dwellers of the mountains and sons of the mist, proudly represented by President 
Andrew Johnson, Eastern Tennessee, stood by the tiag, faithful among the faithless. 
They covered every rocky ravine and mountain pass in Eastern Tennessee with the 
imperishable glory of Thermopylae ; they in proportion to population furnished a large 
number of troops to the Army than any other people. Every single man elected to 
either branch of Congress from Tennessee can take the oath prescribed by the Congress of 
the United States. Three or four of them have borne the flag of their country in the 
very forefront of battle ; two of them bear wounds on their bodies, the evidence of 
their patriotism. 

I should vote to admit Tennessee if she stood alone to-day. There is an organization 
in Arkansas, looking to me very much like a legal organizaion, recognized by Presi- 
dent Lincoln, recognized by President Johnson, having all the atttributes of State 
life and State organization, and I am not sure but that I should vote to admit her. 
When I am prepared to admit that the condition of any State is such as to entitle 
it to representation, I shall vote to admit their members, and lest I may be misunder- 
stood I say now that when any representave is called to that desk in the presence 



16 

of God and these Senators, if he falters in taking the test oath, he is no Senator by 
vote of mine. 

But, Mr. President, not to detain the Senate longer, I hope that the time will speedily 
come when with all these guarantees and safeguards thrown around the loyal men 
and the freedmeu of the South, we may be permitted to hail them again as brothers, 
and to permit their participation in the councils of the nation. The storm cloud of 
war which so long has lowered over and darkened the laud, excluding almost eVery 
star of hope, is now, thank God, spanned by the bow of peace and of promise, giving 
assurance that hereafter the rushing red tide of war shall no more deluge the land 
in blood. 



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